Samoa gets ready for national clean-up

This Saturday 29 October, volunteers across Upolu, including Miss Samoa, will be participating in Samoa National Clean-up Day.

Samoa National Clean-up Day is hosted by Samoa's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) with support from PacWaste - a €7.85 million project funded by the European Union and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to improve regional hazardous waste management across the Pacific.

To promote the upcoming clean-up day, staff from MNRE and SPREP visited St Theresa Primary School in Lepea on 20 October.

Students from St Theresa's were encouraged to join MNRE and SPREP for Samoa National Clean-up Day on Saturday 29 October. Photo: E.Vanderburg/SPREP

Around 60 students from Years 5 and 6 heard presentations on the importance of keeping rubbish out of rivers and oceans. Students were also encouraged to adopt 'Smart choices for a cleaner and safer Pacific' - a range of simple actions that contribute to reduced waste and increased resilience.

Samoa National Clean-up Day will be held on Saturday 29 October between 8am and 11am targeting three areas, Fuluasou River, Sogi Mangroves and Mulinuu Mangroves.

Malaki Iakopo, ACEO of Water Resources Division from MNRE explains that the clean-up is a key event to in the lead-up to Samoa national environment week which begins on Monday 31 October.

"The clean-up event is aimed at engaging government and communities and encouraging all of us to take action and responsibility for our environment. In addition, the rubbish collected during the event will be counted and recorded and used to inform both the public and government."

Keeping rubbish out of our rivers and oceans is one way that we can make Samoa cleaner and safer for all.

PacWaste Project Officer, Ms Elizabeth Vanderburg, said that the clean-up day is a great way to promote the importance of a cleaner and safer Samoa:

"SPREP and the European Union are very pleased to be supporting this clean-up event through the PacWaste project. If we want to see entrenched hazardous waste management practices, an important starting point is to change our mindsets when we deal with any kind of waste – whether it is green waste in our gardens, household waste in our rubbish bins and debris in our rivers and oceans."